Clock Tower Rewind

Clock Tower is a survival horror point-and-click adventure game with 2D graphics. The player controls a cursor to direct the main character, Jennifer Simpson, and give commands such as investigating objects or opening doors. Jennifer can walk and run, although running will reduce her stamina. She may recover her stamina by sitting on the floor.

Jennifer's character portrait in the corner of the screen will change depending on her stamina level. In addition to interacting with objects in the game, Jennifer can also store them in the inventory for later use. The layout of items changes with each playthrough.

The story follows Jennifer Simpson, an orphan from the fictional Granite Orphanage in Romsdalen, Norway. She and other orphaned children named Laura, Anne, and Lotte are adopted in September 1995 by a wealthy recluse named Simon Barrows, who lives in a mansion known as the "Clock Tower", named after its predominant feature. After arriving at the mansion, Mary, the woman who brought the children to the mansion, leaves to find Mr. Barrows.

When she takes an unusually long time, Jennifer offers to investigate. Upon leaving the room, she hears a scream coming from the main foyer. Jennifer returns to find the lights off and the girls missing. After finding either Laura or Anne killed, she finds herself being stalked by a murderous little boy with deformed features, wielding a huge pair of scissors, named Bobby Barrows, also known as the Scissorman in the game.

Clock Tower was directed by Hifumi Kono, who wished to use the game to pay homage to one of his favorite film directors, Dario Argento. Most notably, the game borrows many ideas and is inspired by his film Phenomena (1985). Clock Tower has strong relations to its plot and shares other similarities with Argento's 1980s films, such as occult themes, distressed young women, and bright colors atop a foggy setting. Kono had a passion for old horror films, and wanted Clock Tower to feel like one.

Kono described Clock Tower as an experimental project with a small budget and staff. His peers believed that a game where the protagonist runs away from the enemy would not work, but he continued on despite these concerns. Due to lack of staffing resources, developer Human Entertainment could not include mouse support and also needed to shrink the map down significantly. Although the graphics are two-dimensional, the mansion is designed within a 3D space.

For the Super Famicom release, the four reviewers of Famitsu commented on the game's difficulty and how scary it was. Hirokazu Hamamura wrote that the transition from silence to a sudden event would get the players heart racing/ while another reviewer said that the game is so scary it will make players weep. Three reviewers commented on the difficulty, saying the slightest mistake will lead to a game over. One reviewer recommended to play with a walkthrough, while another said that was just the nature of adventure games.

The publication later compared the PlayStation version to Clock Tower 2 (1996). One reviewer found it superior to the sequel in terms of horror while one said the sequel had obviously superior graphics, but the same level of terror as the follow-up. One reviewer complimented that its biggest selling point was its low price of 3800 yen. and the WonderSwan version a 22 out of 40.